27/11/2024
Rest in peace ❤️❤️
Tara's recent wine of the week paid tribute to Yiannis Boutaris.
'If it hadn’t been for Kir Yianni, Naoussa as we know it might not exist.
Nor would this lovely wine, all tart cherries and bright acidity, forest floor and fine sandpaper tannins, a sort of Grecian Nebbiolo at less than $20 a bottle.
Let me explain. ‘Kir’ is short for ‘Kyrie’, or ‘Sir’ in Greek, and Kir Yianni is Yiannis Boutaris, who died on 9 November at the age of 82. He came from Greek winemaking royalty: his grandfather started the Boutari winery in the late 1800s (1879 officially, though Yiannis insisted it was 1858). That winery kept grape-growing alive for decades as Macedonia endured extended upheaval and unrest following the War of Independence in 1821, buying fruit from the grape-growers who managed to hold on to their land or those who took up farming when they found themselves relocated across northern Greece. Boutari began bottling wine branded with ‘Naoussa’ on the label in 1890; for a while, ‘Boutari’ was synonymous with ‘Naoussa’, the wine.'
https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/kir-yianni-cuvee-villages-vieilles-vignes-2021-naoussa
